Fertile expectations: The politics of involuntary childlessness in twentieth-century France

An engaging history of motherhood, demography, and infertility in twentieth-century France, this book explores fraught political and cultural meanings attached to the notion of an “ideal” family size. When statistics revealed a sustained drop in France’s birthrate, pronatalist activists pushed for financial benefits, propaganda, and punitive measures to counter declining fertility. Situating infertility within this history, the author details innovations in fertility medicine, cultural awar...